1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a medical installation of the type having a number of components which are adjustable in position within an examination room, and during such adjustment are subject to possible collisions with each other and/or with persons in the examination room.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In medical installations, for example an x-ray diagnostics installation with adjustable components, the image generating system can have a C-shaped arc as a component that is adjustable along its circumference at a holder, this arc carrying an x-ray radiator and a radiation receiver at its ends. The image generating system can thus be optimally adjusted for the transirradiation of an examination subject from different directions. To this end, for example, the table for the examination subject can also be adjustable in height and in a plane as a further component.
Given an x-ray diagnostics installation of this type, there is the risk that the adjustable components will come too close to the examination subject, even touch the examination subject under certain substances and thereby jeopardize his or her safety. In order to avoid such a risk, limit switches can be provided at the adjustable components that effect a standstill of, for example, the adjustment motor of the component when such components strike an obstacle.
In order to avoid this risk, German OS 36 04 955 already discloses that the adjustable components be provided with sensors that report the respective position of the components to a computer. The computer compares this position to an envelope erected over the bearing device and signals when one of the adjustable components touches the envelope. It is thereby possible to avoid a collision.
In a medical system disclosed by German OS 43 35 301, a collision is avoided without complicated mathematical model formation but still taking moveable obstacles into consideration, for example by using the patient monitoring. To this end, video cameras are provided for monitoring the room of the medical system, whereby an electronics combines the coordinates of the contours of the components and of the obstacles to form a multi-dimensional vector and forwards this to a three-dimensional neural network that blocks movements that would lead to collisions.